Others, like Skype and Halo, are more closed systems, requiring subscribers on both ends.
Apple people belong despite legendary poor service, lemon new product launches, and expensive closed systems.
These technologies raise barriers to innovation, because developers are forced to go through closed systems and pay for it.
Closed systems with network effects are hard to build because consumers and competitors prefer the convenience of open platforms.
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He believes the auto industry is moving away from historical, purpose built, closed systems to connected, open standards based platforms.
But no one who is a student of the tug of war between open and closed systems thinks this battle is over.
When you can successfully build closed systems, however, they make awesome businesses.
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We saw other networking groups as closed systems: one attorney, one insurance agent, one financial planner. uLink is open, yet contained as well.
Schmidt rattled off that 80% of doctors offices are not computerized, and even large health care organizations have closed systems that are not interoperable.
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"An air-conditioning unit is just the physical manifestation of the Carnot Cycle - which is talking about heat exchange between two closed systems, " he droned.
According to Kyncl, by 2020, 75 percent of all channels will be transmitted or born on the Internet, due to closed systems that have no opened up.
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History has not been kind to closed systems and I have felt Facebook needed to open up or eventually people would just wander away as other amusements, innovations and marketing platforms popped up elsewhere.
New technologies mostly start off as closed systems, because they can evolve more rapidly that way (think cell walls.) But once a technology becomes universally available the dynamic shifts, and open standards allow the growth to be consolidated with other, often competing, technologies.
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Or security and closed systems?
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There are many areas of overlap between biomimicry and "cradle-to-cradle" particularly in the way that ecosystems present a great model of closed loop systems in which any waste from one organism becomes the nutrient for something else.
But the closed political systems of Egypt and Saudi Arabia, the uncertainties of dynastic power-mongering and the corruption inherent in patronage-ridden autocracies still often leads to plotting at the top and frustration that could spill over into anger at the bottom.
That means hiring and involving the right people, communicating the change and installing closed-loop systems and processes to track it closely.
With airports closed and transit systems not running, client meetings have had to be re-scheduled, but for the most part, business is running as usual.
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It stands in contrast to the closed or proprietary systems of Microsoft and Apple who restrict access to the core or source code for their operating systems.
This includes manning X-ray machines, searching people, searching vehicles and operating closed-circuit television systems, he said.
The rooms are designed like upgraded 1950s bomb shelters, with air filters to screen out biological agents, dedicated phone lines, bathrooms and closed-circuit TV systems.
The staff were supposed to be doing tasks including venue perimeter security such as manning X-ray machines, searching people, searching vehicles, and operating closed-circuit television systems, G4S told CNN on Sunday.
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On Tuesday, Cooper used his keynote address at the Embedded Systems Conference in Boston to run down a list of complaints against the wireless industry that ranged from closed carrier networks to inefficient cellular antenna systems to the design of smart phones like the iPhone, which he argues are overly complex.
As quantum hackers continue to put systems through their paces, such loopholes will be closed as these now have been and the systems become more secure.
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Nortex Communications and Panhandle Telecommunication Systems, Inc. closed on their respective purchases this week.
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Mr Jobs had a reputation as a control freak, and his critics complained that the products and systems he designed were closed and inflexible, in the name of greater ease of use.
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All major transit systems and airports have been closed.
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The site closed at the end of 2012 after its owner, BAE Systems, sold the bulk of the land to developers.
The hand, which is said to be a "feat of microscale mechanical systems (MEMS), " measures just one millimeter across when closed into a fist, features four "fingers" made of six silicon wafers each, and touts four gas-powered balloons acting as the muscles at the wafers' joints.
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Unlike proprietary solutions that only work within a closed environment, Twonky technology is an open solution that works across brands, operating systems and industry standards to bridge the gap between mobile devices and the living room.
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